NEWS

The draft paper of the Delimitation Commission has proposed seven additional Assembly seats for Jammu and Kashmir — six in Jammu division and one in Kashmir valley. For the first time, the commission proposed reserving nine seats for Scheduled Tribes (STs) on the basis of population. Seven seats are proposed for the Scheduled Caste (SC) community.

DELIMITATION

Delimitation

• Act of redrawing boundaries of Lok Sabha and state Assembly seats to represent changes in population.
• In this process, the number of seats allocated to different states in Lok Sabha and the total number seats in a Legislative Assembly may also change.
• Main objective – is to provide equal representation to equal segments of a population.
• Fair division of geographical areas so that one political party doesn’t have an advantage over others in an election.
• Under Article 82, the Parliament enacts a Delimitation Act after every Census.
• Carried out by an independent Delimitation Commission.

Delimitation Commission

• The Constitution mandates that its orders are final and cannot be questioned before any court as it would hold up an election indefinitely.
• Composition: Retired Supreme Court judge, the Chief Election Commissioner and the respective State Election Commissioners.
• Functions:
  • Determine the number and boundaries of constituencies in a way that the population of all seats, so far as practicable, is the same.
  • Identifying seats reserved for Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes; these are where their population is relatively large.
• All this is done on the basis of the latest Census and, in case of difference of opinion among members of the Commission, the opinion of the majority prevails.